Treasurer outlines B-C-S revenue loss

A report by Anne Arnold to the Benton-Carroll-Salem school board was not what board members wanted to hear.

With a 3.9-mill emergency operating levy on Tuesday’s ballot, the board is hoping to avoid closing two more elementary schools in addition to Rocky Ridge Elementary School, which will be closed at the end of the school year as part of a re-alignment of the district due to a drop in enrollment.

Oregon Mayor Mike Seferian said he had just watched a Detroit Tigers baseball game on TV on April 20 when he heard a severe thunderstorm move over his house in Eagles Landing.

“I wasn’t really enjoying the shellacking the Tigers were taking at the time at about 1 a.m.,” Seferian told council at a meeting on April 25. “I heard the noise go right over my house very loudly. I knew something was going on. And I think a short time later, [Fire] Chief Ed Ellis called me.”

Plans for additional spending cuts have been put in place if an emergency levy on the May 3 ballot in the Woodmore School District should fail.

The Woodmore school board last week approved the list of cuts, which includes eliminating busing for student field trips, eliminating up to four teaching positions at the high school, and aligning the elementary school so that there are a maximum of three classrooms per grade level, said John Fernbaugh, district superintendent.

Matt Szollosi, state representative from the 49th House District in Ohio, said last week there needs to be greater public awareness of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed biennial budget that will have a severe impact on the Oregon City Schools District.

Szollosi spoke before a crowd of about 30 people who attended a town hall meeting on April 20 at Starr Elementary School.

“As proposed, Oregon schools are losing the equivalent of 5.9-mills worth of revenue based on the proposed budget. Personally, I don’t know how we can absorb that type of loss,” said Szollosi. “When you hear that type of revenue loss from the previous budget, it certainly is a cause for concern. I don’t think we can absorb these types of cuts.”